Oh, good: Healthcare.gov goes down on deadline day

posted at 8:41 am on March 31, 2014 by Erika Johnsen

Of course, it’s not really “deadline day,” so to speak; the enrollment period’s March 31st end date is more like a guideline than an actual rule, since one need only check-mark a box declaring that a previous attempt to get insurance through the website went unfinished for whatever reason. But, this is the day when all of the Obama administration’s furious marketing efforts and the ‘official’ deadline meet — so it’s a good thing the federal exchange website was down as of early this morning.

Hours before the deadline for enrolling, the online page for enrolling in Obamacare went down Monday. …

“HealthCare.gov marketplace application and enrollment system is currently unavailable. The tech team is working now to bring the system online as soon as possible,” the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement Monday morning.

The online application has been unavailable since 3:20 a.m.

I sort of thought we were past all this, but evidently not — and no, it isn’t because of some kind of 4 AM surge in enrollment attempts.

HHS spokeswoman to Joanne Peters said it was not a volume issue, and officials expect the site will be fixed later in the morning.

Oof. Healthcare.gov goes down regularly during off-peak nighttime hours for maintenance, but this morning’s extended technical blip was apparently the result of “software bug.” Winning.

Anyhow, the time is nigh to start evaluating how well the enrollment period really went, both for the law’s overall sustainability and for the insurers who’ll need to start evaluating how expensive their new government-mandated risk pools are going to be and how much to charge for premiums in the coming years; the White House will almost certainly be happily touting the six million figure they announced last week, but the really important information should start coming out soon: How many people made the jump from shopping for a plan to actually purchasing one? Of those people, how many are from the crucial “young invincible” demographic? How many are sicker with more healthcare needs than the general population? How many were previously uninsured?

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Originally, the web hosting was supposed to switch today from being hosted by Verizon to being hosted by HP. That has now been pushed out until sometime this summer, but perhaps someone at Verizon “forgot”…

When I was a youngster I owned an old 1930 vintage Ford coupe. To keep it running I was constantly wiring parts together so they wouldn’t fall of, priming the carburetor. cleaning the plugs and beating on the dash to make the speedometer and heater work. Finally, it just gave up and died a natural death.

Obamacare is very much like my old Ford and I anticipate a similar outcome.

Originally, the web hosting was supposed to switch today from being hosted by Verizon to being hosted by HP. That has now been pushed out until sometime this summer, but perhaps someone at Verizon “forgot”…

Looks like the second link is behind the WSJ pay wall, so here’s a quote:

The Terremark contract was set to expire March 31, according to a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers the website. Now, the extension calls for an initial four-month period, along with three, 30-day option periods, with a value of up to $58 million, contracting records show. CMS confirmed the contract extension.

I can answer that my wife and I signed up yesterday. It went very smoothly, I fully admit. We both are in the generously 60+ brackets and would like to thank our younger citizens for their next several years of hard work to keep our wrinkled butts healthy. We do plan on rocketing through our deductables as fast as possible. I mean why not? I’m sure every ancient mole we have needs a reason for another on your dime doctor’s appointment. Thanks, kids!

this morning’s extended technical blip was apparently the result of “software bug.”

Y2K?

How many were previously uninsured?

That is the most important question – saving those poor souls (half of whom were just fine not having insurance, btw) was the supposed “reason” this taxpayer-funded fiasco was foisted on us in the first place. Unfortunately, this administration, along with its MSM enablers, will shield that important fact from us forever.

I’m curious —how many of the new “enrollees” are folks who lost their individual or employer plans and have been forced to enroll. What an absurd and unintelligible world the socialists wish to construct.

“Does that mean that Obamacare will basically be beyond repeal, as its supporters hope? It certainly makes things harder. But we still don’t know how many of these people are newly insured, or how many of the previously insured like these policies better than their old policies — nor how much pressure it is going to end up putting on the budget. Those are things we won’t know for quite a while. But if it were impossible to ever cut off an expensive entitlement that goes to the middle class, TennCare would never have been cut….”

..but the really important information should start coming out soon: How many people made the jump from shopping for a plan to actually purchasing one? Of those people, how many are from the crucial “young invincible” demographic? How many are sicker with more healthcare needs than the general population? How many were previously uninsured?

Just watching Fox on the treadmill, (uh-huh Bluegill) and the Maryland Governor is so full of it. His state is a disaster with the enrollees and website. But he says they’re above their numbers “for the period”. He also said they’re scrapping a 140 million dollar website and going to spend 30 million to switch over. They had one for 30 million they expect to work better?

He said things are working, but not as well as needs be “before November”. He freaking said it. It’s not the poor uninsured to them. It’s the elections.

Only a racist, homophobic, climate change denier, who wants all sick people to die, would call for an “evaluation” at this time.

It will take many years before a proper evaluation of Obamacare can be done, and the only people qualified to evaluate the success of the program will be members of a committee appointed by HHS. The names of those committee members will, of course, not be released to the public in order to prevent harassment.

NOTE: A small revenue enhancement will be required for the funding of Obamacare in 2015. The White House, based on the consensus of approved economists, has determined that 17.4% of the gross assets of all American citizens will be required.

Worst lies I’ve witnessed yet from Chuck Todd on the Today show this morning (NBC)

1. The 6 million sign-ups is legitimate
2. Insurers are not worried about minor percentage of people not paying premiums
3. Law is now “unrepealable”

Must be nice for the White House to have handmaidens that broadcast every falsehood and serve as a public relations megaphone

matthew8787 on March 31, 2014 at 9:16 AM

That last lie is particularly transparent. In their attempt to accomplish this through mandates to private insurance companies, these geniuses actually wound up making the law relatively easy to appeal.

1) Remove the mandate
2) Remove the requirements for what insurance MUST cover
3) Allow signing up with insurance companies directly rather than through the government exchanges
4) Leave the old insurance plans in place for all who still want them.
5) Wait for the old plans to fade away, as insurance companies compete to offer new plans that actually fit the needs of everybody — catastrophic plans for the healthy, plans that don’t include drug abuse, contraceptives, and pregnancy coverage for older people, etc.

If Obamacare had been pure nationalized health care, there would have to be some process of privatization. But since the private companies already exist, it’s just a matter of letting them compete for customers.